What is a good type of fish to keep i don't want a huge fish something about 5 to seven inches?

Answer 1

What size of tank, and what tankmates?

African butterflies are interesting, but they're predators - if there are small fish in the tank, they may be eaten.

Loaches are comical, and they come in a variety of sizes from 2" to 14" depending on the species. They should be kept in schools of 3+ though.

If you're looking for something colorful, get 3 or 6 rainbow fish. Just get more males than females - the males will show off for the females and you'll get better color from them.

If you have no fish, and want to set up a complete community in a 55 or larger tank, you could get a angelfish, cichlids, or silver dollars.

That's just a sample of the possibilities. Here are a few links where you can look at the fish I've mentioned and others: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pcatid=830
http://www.fishprofiles.com/profiles/default.aspx?pnl=fresh
http://www.timstropicals.com/Compatibility/NameResults.asp

Answer 2

It really would depend on why type of fish you want and how much you are willing to spend on the fish. You can start with small fish that will grow into the tank. The bigger the fish, the more it will cost you, usually. Discus are nice fish and they fit the 5-7" range. Angels are nice too and there are a variety of them so you can have color as well as some with long fins. You can also mix fish and create a tropical aquarium. My husband has a tank with several different types of angels, neon tetras, catfish and a few other species. It looks breathtaking!

Answer 3

For a fish that size, you'll need a big tank too. Here are some examples of fish bigger than 5" and their tank preferences:

3 Spot and Moonlight gouramis grow to 6". You should only keep one at a time to keep aggression under control, but they're pretty good community fish otherwise and very hardy in my experience. Don't go much smaller than a 35 gallon.

Sailfin mollies grow really fast and max out at close to 6". They can be kept in as little as 20 gallons and are just as inexpensive as the smaller varieties. They really prefer a brackish environment though so tankmates are limited.

There are several large cichlids that can be kept in very specific communities that you should research carefully before you buy them because if you do it wrong, you end up with big aggression problems. Some of them, like the common oscar, do best as the solitary fish in a large tank. I can't go into it much more than that because I don't have any experience with cichlids.

If you get into 8-12" fish, you're really going to need a 75-100 gallon tank. Some beautiful schooling fish for huge tanks are tinfoil barbs, silver dollars, giant danios, clown loaches, and bala sharks.

Avoid the real tank busters, fish that ethically shouldn't even be available in retail stores. They will quickly outgrow any tank you can put them in, or become stunted and live shortened, sickly lives. These include pacus, piranha, clown knives, arowana, Asian and American redtailed catfish, channel cats, and giant gouramis. Koi, common 'feeder' goldfish, and common plecos really should be kept only in ponds.

Answer 4

Beta Fish are usually good. You can't put male beta fish together but they are generally pretty easy to take care of and can live in a small bowl just fine as long as the water does not get too cold.